Page 20

Rai had thought the storm would have long since dissipated, but the rain was indeed still heavy, pelting the earth of Poppy’s backyard with huge, fat drops.

“Perhaps you should think positive,” he said, allowing himself a sly smile.

He closed his eyes, reached into the clouds, and wound his senses into the energies, seeking to calm them.

They resisted.

He frowned and twisted harder, fighting to untangle the storm’s power, and after a moment they relented, smoothing out beneath his magical touch, until they were tame and docile at last. He opened his eyes and watched in satisfaction as the raindrops outside the screens slowed to a drizzle, then a sprinkle, then nothing.

Poppy laughed, looking down at him. “I’ve been converted to the Church of Positive Thinking.”

Rai grinned. “So, you will show me?”

“Let me get my keys.”

When she had fetched what she needed—as well as his purloined socks, which he dutifully slipped on along with his damp sneakers—they went out the screen door and around the house to where Poppy’s car sat lifeless.

She opened the car door and bent to fiddle with something.

A moment later, the hood popped a tiny bit up; she came around the front of the car, sliding her fingers under the front edge of the hood then lifting it up, setting a rod at the side to hold it open.

Rai stared at the car’s workings. It was almost all metal, though some parts were rubber and plastic, all of which made his senses twitch; a metal fae might be more comfortable with the machinery, but it was the element furthest from his own purview, and he could not do anything with it.

There was a container of trapped liquid and a pipe system that snaked throughout the pieces of metal; the liquid was part water but had been fouled with some sort of poison.

Other pipes and tubes ran throughout carrying other things not-water, and a cistern of cleaning fluid sat off at the side, but none of those were his concern.

“Which is the battery?” he asked .

Poppy grinned. “You weren’t kidding about not being able to fix cars,” she said, reaching out and tapping a large square plastic box. “Even I know how to change one of these. This one’s a little tricky, but not too bad if you have the right tools.”

He narrowed his fae sight on it. Ah, yes.

Now that he focused, he could feel traces of current, a sluggish trickle of energy.

He’d looked up the word battery that afternoon, and while the images his phone had shown him had not looked like this, he’d understood that the battery was something that held electricity, the same thing that powered the lamps humans used in their homes, the sliding door at the grocery store, even his tiny phone.

The same thing that crackled down from the clouds in a thunderstorm as lightning.

And Rai might not know how the engine he was looking at worked, he might be repulsed by the oil and rubber and chemicals, but he understood lightning.

He was lightning.

“Perhaps,” he said, “you should try starting your car again.”

Poppy wrinkled her nose. “Pretty sure it’s dead,” she said. “The dome light doesn’t even come on anymore.”

“Perhaps this time is the charm.” He knew the correct phrase was third time , but he was certain Poppy had tried to start her car more times than that.

“Okay. Not like I can die from disappointment, or the desert would already have bleached my bones.” She left his side, opening the car door again and sliding in to sit. There was a faint rattling.

Rai set his fingers to the battery, the metal part where the electricity was struggling and failing to flow.

He sensed the weak pull that was Poppy trying to start it, and he let his energies join that tiny trickle, building it higher, making the trickle a flood, and there was a harsh coughing noise, and the engine growled into motion beneath his skin.

He jumped back, startled even though he had been the one getting it going.

The engine was even louder up close than he had imagined; perhaps not as loud as thunder, but noise sounded different when he did not feel it in his bones.

“Oh, wow!” Poppy leaped out of the car and came around to Rai’s side; she gazed at the moving engine, beaming. “I can’t believe it! Did you jiggle a wire or something?”

He bowed his head modestly, allowing her to draw her own conclusions. If he did not say the words, it was not a lie, was it?

She threw her arms around him. “I don’t know if you’re a genius or a genie or frickin’ Jesus, but thank you! You have just saved me so much grief! ”

He didn’t know what a Jesus was, and everyone knew genies did not exist, but he would accept genius . “I am glad.”

Poppy released the propping rod and allowed the hood to thunk closed. “I guess I need to run it for a while, make sure the battery’s good and charged. And last time I got a jump, they said it charged better if it wasn’t just sitting parked.” She turned to him, eyes alight. “Wanna go for a drive?”

He blinked. He had never ridden in a car, though he had relished the times he had washed one away in a flood, enjoyed the crash and bang when they collided with each other in the rain. That last thought made him grimace. “You will not hurt yourself? The road is slippery after a storm.”

She waved her hand negligently. “Tucson drivers may suck swamp water, but I learned to drive on the mean streets of Schaumburg. This is nothing compared to the Snowpocalypse of 2011. And I’ll be careful. I can’t afford to get this asshole car repaired.” She jerked her head toward the car. “Get in.”

He grinned and strode around to the far side as she returned to the driver’s wheel. He opened the door and sat in the passenger seat, which was interestingly shaped to cradle his body. “Do you drive fast?” He had always been jealous of how human vehicles could outstrip his clouds.

Poppy laughed. “Better fasten your seatbelt.”